9 June 2011

Gundam Age anime announced

A new Gundam anime series has been announced with cooperation from CoroCoro Comic magazine (コロコロコミック), which is now known Mobile Suit Gundam AGE (機動戦士ガンダムAGE).

This new series is supposed to debut from an official annoucement on 13th June via Bandai Channel Live and Gundam Info, but an early release of a magazine, presumably the July 2011 issue of CoroCoro Comic, shows what the new series is going to be.

And a blurry picture of a Gundam (original source unknown), presumably that of the protagonist. The Gundam is seen to have 2 extra forms - Suparo (Sparrow?) and Taitasu (Titus?), as seen in the 2nd magazine scan

Manga and merchandise are being planned and have taken shapes already, as seen in the 3rd scan.

早耳ガンプラ情報局 has some info on Gundam AGE already, of which you can read the English translation on Gundam Guy.

Well, I suppose many Gundams fans will be disappointed, or even angry by this newly announced Gundam series. Although there were annoucements earlier that Gundam will have a joint project with CoroCoro Comic, I did not fully anticipate that the joint project will be the new anime series, but given that CoroCoro Comic is a magazine catered primarily for children, it is not too surprising that Gundam AGE will be targeting children as the main audience, as suggested from the character designs.

And my reaction? Let's just say I could not fully anticipate such radical changes, and it's a little hard to swallow. I really am not sure whether this will be the kind of thing for me for now (due to the target audience the series is aiming for), but I'll wait and see. Besides we only have 3 magazine scans and a really blurry image of the protagonist's Gundam (most likely designed by Okawara KunioUPDATED: Okawara says on twitter that he is "not involved" in the new Gundam series) at the moment, and more info may be revealed on 13th.

So, has the Gundam franchise really turned into "a new low" as some "diehard fans" will call it? Or that Sunrise and Bandai are planning something ambitious to cater specifically for younger audience this time while Gundam UC OVA is around? Could this be something with great potential that perhaps we are not able to see through for now? I do not know what to say as for now, but I'll leave it here for now, and see what more we shall see when 13th June comes around.

8 comments:

Gundam has always been aimed at children to a degree, just not to this much of a degree. That's not to say that older fans won't enjoy it but I think it's going to be tricky to get the balance right, even more so that with previous shows.

Gundam UC is too irregular in terms of release to be able to say that it will cater to the older fans so maybe Sunrise have decided to abandon the older fans for future shows to draw new young ones in to keep the popularity up. That would be sad indeed but would make business sense. But I'll still watch it because it's a mecha show.

@ GundamJehutyKai:It is true that the Gundam franchise does have a good lot of children fans to a degree, even though they are usually too young to understand the concepts or themes in a lot of the series, and this one seems to target specifically for them.

There are still approximately 15 months left before Gundam UC OVA is over. While the 6-month gap between episodes is quite long, I think there may be other media and merchandises that will keep the old fans interested in some sort. But yes as you said this would make some sense business-wise, and they are entertainment and hobby businesses afterall.

I think I should hold back my opinion on it until I get to see more of it in the future. We should hopefully get to know more about this on 13th June.

I've mentioned when I first seen the Gundam that it looks a bit like the Beginning Gundam... And that was geared towards kids... I wonder if that line was successful enough that they thought they can start this one. Well I guess we'll see what happens. Have to settle for UC for backup.

I just now realize something. Is Level 5 going to be the sole producer of this new Gundam series, or are they just helping Sunrise.

I think what a lot of people are forgetting is that when they were kids, there were watching the same thing as the newer generation. I think it's one of the reasons why Gundam Wing and Seed are pretty successful here in the US (not sure about 00 though)because kids are watching this and they hooked into it.

I just posted on Tom's site, I too am looking at this with very cautious lenses. My theory is this: Seed and Seed Destiny were are new take on MSG and Zeta Gundam. 00 Was supposed to be a new take on Wing. This might end up being a new take on X or possibly G (Titas looks just like Maxter).

@ Lightning Sabre:There does seem to be some smiliarities between Beginning G and AGE, and it looks like that AGE will also have some sort of RPG and simulation battles that will allow one to fight online or on arcade machines in real life, but I will have to check on that later tonight.

Waiting for half a year per episode of Gundam UC can be quite long, but I guess we still have that to look forward to should we not like AGE.

@ Tom:I think Level-5 will be supporting Sunrise for the animation, as there was a source stating that a number of staff who worked on Gundam 00 will work on AGE as well.

While many of the Gundam series are indeed watched by children, I don't think they may necessarily understand the themes or concepts behind them, which can be quite mature and serious. It is true that series such as Gundam Wing and SEED bring in new fans to appreciate the Gundam franchise, and that those who got into Gundam by them may eventually change their appreciation as time changes.

What I am thinking in my mind now is how different one series can be and yet people can still accept the difference, such as the super robot theme and a lack of war for G Gundam. AGE is apparently focused for a much lower age group than most Gundam series we know of so far, so whether older fans will still like it or not despite being in different age group(s) will be the thing I am wondering at the moment.

@ korewagundam:I am not having high expectations so far, but I don't want to jump into conclusions and judge a book by its cover, so I think I will have to wait and hold back for now. The big shoulders on Titus does have a close resemblance to Gundam Maxter from G Gundam as you said, and like you said the captain with the sunglasses does look a bit like Jamil from Gundam X from a quick glimpse ^^;

It may be a bit of a long shot, but having Gundam Sentinel animated would be a neat idea too.

@ Gun the ammoless:Just saw the PV not too long ago. It's still a bit hard to say what I think of it so far though ^^;